Secret Garden @ Ipoh – A Respite for the Jaded Soul

Secret Garden Bistro – The open air dining concept (al fresco) taken to different heights; Sipping on your wine while being caressed by the soothing splatters of water from the fountain, and hopefully …. some lush greenery in the near future.

I would be lying if I say I am not intrigued by the sheer pleasure of introducing yet another new eatery in Ipoh, although this one being relatively new. The official launch of Secret Garden was sometime during the first week of August 2010. The bistro started operating way back in June or July, but the boutique hotel on the first floor (only three premium rooms, as far as I know) designed to exude a certain heritage aura will only be opened for reservations in the near future.

The rustic charm in the carefully executed planning and designing of the facade and interior of Secret Garden deserves a mention; especially those supposedly-REAL barrels used to prop up a glass table top at the bar area.

Many are still kept in the dark about the exact location of Secret Garden, or what type of cuisine one can expect to indulge themselves in. Heck, even if you zoom by this lane leading to Secret Garden, all lined with a tall foliage of trees, you might just miss the place as there is NO huge signboard lighted up with neon spotlights, nor engraved walls/tiles with the company’s name emblazoned on them.

To clear the air of mystique surrounding Secret Garden, read on to discover what could have been Ipoh’s best kept secret …… until NOW.

The landscape fronting the lawns of Secret Garden may take some effort to appreciate though ; given the rather barren lands currently utilized as a free-for-all parking lot.

Pardon the grainy shots, for the ambience was really dark and cozy; merely lighted up with soft lighting from the elegant lamps looming over the tables.

Started off with a zesty rendition of Greek salad, combining various fresh greens tossed lightly with a piquant dressing. The serving plate used to present this appetizer was an awkward four-petals flower shaped one. Kooky? Yes. But all in the name of good fun I guess. And different from the usual deep bowls routinely used in other establishments. Although not very space-efficient; given the rather restricted elbow space on the square tables.

Other salads available on their menu are : Nicoise Salad (at Secret Garden, tuna is served), their signature Secret Garden Salad (grilled broccoli and bacon salad with warm dressing), Grilled Chicken Salad, Potato Salad, Smoked Salmon, and the Cardini’s Caesar Salad (with a twist; addition of beef bacon for a more substantial serving). (Salads are priced from RM16.90 – RM23.90)

Complementary warmed wholemeal buns with salted butter

Forgot the real name of this, but a good Beer Snack from the light bites category; a Nachos with Melted Cheese and bacon bits.

The last page and a half consist of Beer Snacks; various savoury bites to go with your choice of liquor. And while we are on the subject of alcohol, Secret Garden comes equipped with a wine cellar. Mr Lim, the proprietor of Secret Garden Hotel proudly proclaimed that they stock up on the finer imported wines, and with far-from-hefty price tags.

Wine connoisseurs rejoice, for here comes another hotspot for you to exchange life stories, sip on fine liquor and have a jolly good time at their lounge.

4 Season (RM20.90/USD6.30) – A set of four types of sandwiches; Salmon with capers on toasted baguette, Salad sandwich of mixed greens stuffed in a pita pocket, English Sandwich with a squared sunny side up, and the Steak Sandwich between whole-grain bread.

4 Season is one of their forte; a set of sandwich selection to be shared amongst diners. Since we were sharing the breads, I only tasted the Salmon which was fresh; rendering almost no role for the dollop of mayonnaise. Squeeze some lemon juice over on the slices of raw salmon, and relish. The others seemed to be okay, but the Salad sandwich tucked in a pita bread was lacklustre; being rather dry without any dressing at all.

Chicken Parmigiana (~RM32/USD10)- A breaded fillet of chicken fried then baked with a sumptuous combination of cheese and a marinara sauce.

Chicken Parmigiana was not on their menu yet, I believe. This was however, one of their Specials written on the board visible from the front door. The other being a Tuna Steak, or something along the line.

Served with a side of spaghetti in marinara sauce (tomato-based sauce without meat) the chunky portion was filling and suits the average eater with a sizeable appetite. Of course, you can complement your meal with various light bites aforementioned, or even a Soup of the Day (usually Cream of Pumpkin at about RM8-RM10 each).

For their pasta selection; you can choose to have your Bolognese or Carbonara, or an interesting Hokkaido Fusion of raw ingredients topped with caviar (!). The Grill Bacon Pasta reminded me of Pasta House’s version of the Fried Pork Pasta, albeit with more ingredients. Combining the earthy abalone mushrooms and greasy pan fried bacons never faltered; and a perfect foil to the al dente pasta. Pastas are priced from RM18.90-RM20.90.

Opulence, funky and quaint. Don’t worry, the restaurant is fully equipped with air-conditioners; the fan is there to complement the atmosphere.

Soon Secret Garden will be offering the Signature Breakfast all day long; or as Mr Lim himself proclaimed as the REAL American Breakfast with sausage, bacon, eggs, wild mushroom, tomatoes and a glass of fresh orange juice as well as a cup of black coffee.

If you’re a fan of steaks, heave a sigh of relief as you can find Wagyu steaks (marbling grade of 5) imported from Australia here. About RM80/USD24 per 100g, have them charbroiled/grilled to your liking. The rack of lamb (~RM40/USD12) is another one of their famous item, as well as various grill platters and seafood combination. Oh you can also have a platter of various imported cheese and dried fruits to complement your wine, at RM28.90/USD8.80 per serving (excluding the wine, of course).

A desolated refurbished bungalow in the middle of nowhere?

More shots to come later on the second page of this post. For now, just rejoice at the thought of another dining option in a most secluded area in Ipoh.

68 Responses to “Secret Garden @ Ipoh – A Respite for the Jaded Soul”

From the last picture, I know why it is called the “Secret Garden”.. The restaurant really looks kinda cool =] Their food is looking very tasty too, how good if I can have the Chicken Parmigiana~ haha..

Indeed, the Salad sandwich was a little bland and dry, but the Salmon with mayo and capers was okay. One thing of note here, the food at Secret Garden may get cold and hard really fast due to the blaring air-cond and fans. So it’ll be best to tuck in straight after being served.

Well, totally agreed. The price is over rated, consider as a 5 stars price but NOT 5 stars service and 5 stars quality!
If the management could put more efforts to improve , it will be a good running restaurant in Ipoh. I have been in gastronome for more than 25 years in Europe. For a western food restaurant like this one is “no way” at all…..need to improve a lot a lot! My 2 cents!

Been there yesterday nite… The food is really not up to standard at all… I think a lot of improvement need to be put into it otherwise it will be another cold room soon… Worst thing that can happen to a restaurant like this when I asked for dessert. They told me they are still too new so no dessert… What the #%%$? At least serve ice cream and cake.. Really a let down..

I can foresee this as another shop waiting to be close if thier forte is food.. Maybe if they are open more of the drink scene survival rate might be higher..

Tried some food yesterday..

Rack of lamb, asked for medium well, came out overly done and the mint sauce that accompany it dish water..

Thanks Yee for the feedback. Until now (we just went for dinner) they have yet to include a dessert in their repertoire. Mostly concentrating on mains and snacks to go with the alcoholic drinks.
Maybe the management should take heed in this aspect?

Wow, lucky for you that the Hokkaido Fusion you had was fresh. I have been purging for the past 32 hours and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop anytime soon.

I really wished I have something nice to say about this restaurant, especially being an Ipohian with so much pride in our local food. I often refer to your blog when it comes to seeking out new food to try or if I had a restaurant in mind and you have the most comprehensive reviews most of the time. So on Saturday, I brought some outstation friends to celebrate my sister’s birthday at Secret Garden as it’s something new. I really loved the bungalow & garden concept, but when it comes to the food and service, I’m dissapointed to say that our night was a spiraling nightmare.

We were a table of 6, and we ordered the Cheesy Nachos as appetizer, Lamb Shoulder, Hokkaido Fusion, Rib Eye, Ocean Seafood Platter and Honey Mustard Salmon.

Before ordering our food, we posed some questions towards the waiter who was serving us. (The first one who came had no idea what the restaurant was serving so he had to ask for help *first blooper*). The second waiter was very polite and answered every question in a professional manner. We asked what the Ocean Seafood Platter consisted of, and he told us that it was FRESH salmon with prawns and a variety of seafood. He also recommended the Hokkaido Fusion, which had fresh salmon as well. Sounds great for sashimi lovers like us, so in our excitement, we ordered them.

Unfortunately, the seafood platter appeared much different than what we expected. The plate consisted of a mountain of FRIED (dieters will scream in horror) seafood; Our friendly waiter tried to persuade us to accept the dish saying that they purposely cooked our food in fear that we cannot stomach raw food (he appeared to be right actually *purges*). At first we were slightly ‘impressed’ by the restaurants considerate gesture, until we scrutinized the quality of the ‘seafood’ which consisted of 4 crabsticks (the type we can buy frozen in supermarts for RM4.50 a pack of 48), 2 small prawns, 4 fillets of dory fish and common salad on the side. For RM32.90.

We started arguing that they should have informed us at the beginning and let us have there was an option of having it cooked or fresh, not just depending on the restaurant’s discretion of their guests’ preference. My sister was very upset to be served something she had no intention of eating (plus it was her birthday) so we insisted that she be given the FRESH Ocean Seafood Platter. And then the truth came out; apparently the menu was changed (and the waiter didn’t know? *cough*) therefore the FRESH seafood was actually… not available. He could have just apologized and said it wasn’t available actually, offered us a change of order instead of coming up with such a questionable excuse to make us accept it, even though it might offend his boss to waste food.

We decided that we preferred a healthier option and ordered another lamb shoulder in replacement of the seafood platter.

I agree with CW, the chef had no discretion between rare, medium, medium well and well done (so it was a waste of time asking us when we ordered). From the looks of it, he has indeed mastered the skill of ‘overdone’ as our meats were dry and tough despite us requesting for medium. One of our lamb shoulders was even burnt black. I wouldn’t recommend the lamb as it is a unpleasant chewing experience. The mint sauce was diluted with vinegar and water. How did we tell, it’s because half the people in our table work in the F&B line.

Majority of the comments about the food being too salty had a lot of basis. I’m not sure whether using oyster sauce as a marinade for a western lamb dish (and then dipping it into a dodgy mint sauce) a conventional way of eating it.

The rib eye is NOT a rib eye. So don’t foolishly throw away your RM43.90 for it. It’s a piece of beef tenderized (beaten flat, which made the meat tighter) to look huge and was overly cooked despite the request for medium (due to the fact it was thin). I’m sorry to say this but a lot of steak lovers will be seriously offended if this continued.

On another note, my mum got my uncle’s account of his experience today. He went to Secret Garden (hearing it was a replica of Indulgence) with a westerner friend and they both confirmed that the rib eye was NOT a rib eye. Their main meal came out when they were in the middle of their appetizer, and the waitress holding the main meal questioned them repeatedly, “Then how?”. I suppose if you’re in a common western restaurant, they could just put the plate there anyways and the guest can just switch plates once they’re done and the waitress can just collect the empty dish whenever she’s free. I don’t quite remember this rule in high class fine dining though.

While I’m still at fine dining rules, I noticed that when we asked for ketchup, the waitress gave us a small sauce dish and the bottle of ketchup. Had she just gave us the bottle, the offense wouldn’t have been so severe. Normally, fine dining restaurants would readily pour out a small dish of ketchup and then serve it to you, not exactly giving you the bottle and dish to pour it out yourself. I wasn’t entirely bothered by this but when I struggled trying to pour the ketchup (short of using a knife to dig it out :P) my friend pointed it out to the waitress the proper way to do it after attempting to pour it himself (and still failed).

The nachos meant as appetizer only came after we finished our main meals, even after us asking for the waitress to check on it 3 times.

Time for the bill, and we were hoping that that will be the end of the bloopers that night, but maybe bad things like to happen in manifold, the ocean seafood platter which we rejected was charged to the bill. Thankfully, it was quickly corrected and apologized for. We did gave some constructive criticism and comments to the waitress at the end, to which she responded by smiling and thanking us for our patronage. (Sigh, why would she care, she’s just an employee…)

I don’t mean to be offensive and start up a controversy but in the end, after 32 hours of suffering, my stomach urged me to do it some justice by writing an honest and educational review. At it’s current food standards, I would recommend everyone to just continue eating at Ye Olde English for its value for money and consistency.

I’m sorry Secret Garden, but you lost my vote here. : /

Realistically, everyone will have different experiences (good/bad) when eating at certain places so I’m certainly not implying that any future visits to this restaurant will prove disastrous. Hopefully, the management will improve their service and food in the future.

Indulgence could possibly the first boutique hotel in Ipoh, with 7 rooms (if I’m not mistaken) decorated by Julie herself, and definitely worth a look.
Paragon City Hotel near to Stadium Ipoh is another boutique hotel, but a budgeted option. Have not walked in and see for myself, hence no comment.

Been in Paragon.. Don’t think it is a boutique hotel.. The rooms are small and the wall are make out of partition.. U can hear the people next door loud and clear.. It is more of a budget hotel.. I think a room cost RM60 a night..

i had grilled bacon pasta d other day when i went n it wasn’t really good..i agree with wat Tallgal said..it was very salty and it tasted something like fried spaghetti in cintan noodles’ seasoning…bacon also normal and mine didn’t come with mushroom like yours..grrr!!and it’s so over-priced..and not much of a choice when it comes to drinks..they’ll recommend u to take a bucket of beer as juices cost d same…sigh..

went there once for drinks with friends. had their snack – Lamb Cut. the lamb was cut into small pieces served on top of a plate of hash browns. the lamb was well marinated but the texture on the chewy side. kinda tiring on the mouth. haha…but i like the ambience though as u said it’s cold inside.

Hi, just been there a few days ago, well the service was good…. Guess with all the comments, the management is really looking into improving this place. Hopefully it stays as ipoh has very few good places to go to.

just back from secret garden…food quality drop compared my last visit there, furthermore, i order orange apple juice they sent apple juice, after waiting for extra 20 min then told me forgot to put in order for the fish….

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Actually, tis place is good for drinking beer…nice environment but not the food…..food not so nice, maybe steaks are ok…..well, service not bad too, friendly. One good thing is their happy hour or drinking session also available in afternoon. Air con also cold enough…thats good got beer drinkers….!!!!

It’s not halal ? too bad. Alcohol is OK, we muslims can avoid…. but pork & non halal meat is where the problem lies. They really should improve on all the comments mentioned in here. Get a professional chef’s help or something. Then people won’t mind paying extra for the food.

My first time to this place was horrifying. It looks big from the outside, but when i entered the place was so noisy cos of the echos and the place as packed as the tables are arranged about one feet away from one another. No privacy, noisy, cramp, waiters did not know what the dishes were when asked and they cannot understand what I wanted. Not a place i would recommend to anyone, Period.

i went there few days ago .for me ,i can tolerate with slow(took more than 1hour ) &bad service (didn’t serve all coffee in one time &is juz 5cups )&need several request .i cant accept they use ceramic tiles to serve the food .the plates are expensive, but tiles are not produce to put the food, it might contain hazardous materials .it doesn’t show creativity, but lack of sense.

I almost never comment, however i did some searching and wound up here Secret
Garden – A Boutique Hotel & Bistro Hidden in the Heart
of Ipoh City | Motormouth From Ipoh – Malaysian Food & Travel.
And I actually do have some questions for you if you tend not to mind.

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by brain dead individuals? And, if you are posting on other sites, I would like to follow everything new you have to post.
Would you list of the complete urls of your community pages
like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?

certainly like your website however you need to test
the spelling on several of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling issues and I to find it very bothersome to inform the reality then again I’ll definitely come again again.

I was wondering if you ever considered changing the
layout of your blog? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
But maybe you could a little more in the way
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Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or
2 images. Maybe you could space it out better?

[…] Latest to burst on a bandwagon is STG (acronym for Sabah Tea Garden) Tea House Cafe occupying a double level bungalow off Gopeng Road in Chateau Garden in Ipoh. Let’s see how this fares conflicting a likes of Indulgence and Secret Garden. […]